Asia Pacific stock markets rebound and diverge from a negative US performance. The US dollar tumbles as Fed rate cut bets rise. Gold stages a bullish reversal.
Asian stock markets rebounded, supported by a US dollar pull-back
During today’s Asian session, most Asia-Pacific stock markets diverged from the negative performance seen in major U.S. stock indices last Friday, 1 August, where the S&P 500 dropped by -1.6% triggered by the weaker-than-expected non-farm payrolls report for July that showed a significant slowdown in the labour market.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index managed to snap its prior four sessions of consecutive losses to record an intraday gain of 0.9% right at its 50-day moving average, acting as a support at around 24,140. Singapore’s Straits Times Index managed to put a halt to the previous five days of consecutive losses to stage a bullish reversal of 0.8% after a retest of its 20-day moving average. The outlier was Japan’s Nikkei 225 that shed -1.25% but managed to close back towards its 20-day moving average at 40,290 after it gapped down to print an intraday low of 39,850.
Today’s recovery seen in most of the Asia Pacific equities has been driven by a weaker US dollar, where the US Dollar Index tumbled by -1.37% last Friday, its worst single-day performance since 10 April 2025. Based on the latest data from the CME FedWatch tool, Fed funds futures traders have pushed up the odds of the first Fed funds rate cut to be enacted on the upcoming 17 September FOMC meeting; an increase to 80% chance from a less than 50% probability ex-post 30 July FOMC meeting.
The FX market has recorded a mixed bag of intraday performances in today’s Asia session, with the Aussie dollar gaining by 0.1% against the US dollar while the Swiss franc has been the worst performer with a loss of -0.6% against the greenback, followed by the Japanese yen (-0.3%).
Following a strong bullish reversal last Friday, where Gold (XAU/USD) surged 2.2%, its best daily gain in nearly two months, the yellow metal has since edged down by -0.2% intraday but remains above the key US$3,300 psychological level.
Our YouTube video above contains the latest intraday technical analysis on the latest intraday technical analysis on US Wall Street 30, US Nas 100, US SPX 500, Hong Kong 33, Japan 225, Germany 30, EUR/USD, GBP/USD, AUD/USD, USD/JPY, Gold (XAU/USD), and West Texas Oil.
